Five ways Toronto Maple Leafs have changed their culture this off-season

When Dave Nonis announced that Steve Spott and Peter Horacek had been hired as assistant coaches earlier this month, the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager was asked if this represented a culture change.

“I’m not the big culture change kind of a guy,” said Nonis, adding that he did not believe you could flip a switch and immediately expect change.

And yet, looking at the moves that the Leafs have made this summer — Brendan Shanahan’s first as the team’s president — it appears that is exactly what has happened.

The Leafs have kept their head coach and their captain, but Shanahan has been busy making sure the team that ended the season is different from the one that will begin next season.

Whether it was choosing skill over size at the draft, replacing Claude Loiselle and Dave Poulin with a 28-year-old with zero NHL experience or signing more players than the team has roster spots in hopes of creating competition, the culture is being changed.

Here are five examples:

1. They hired Kyle Dubas

Let the record show that on July 22, Brendan Shanahan finally put his stamp on the team. Forget the fact that he brought back head coach Randy Carlyle or kept GM Dave Nonis. By hiring Dubas, a 28-year-old proponent of analytics, to be the assistant general manager (replacing Claude Loiselle and Dave Poulin), the message Shanahan put out there was that the Leafs were going to do things differently than they have in the past.

It was a bold and gutsy move. In the past, when Nonis and others within the organization had been asked about applying analytics into their day-to-day operations, the stock answer was that they had not found anything that worked. Well, Dubas should change that. The former GM of the Sault-Ste Marie Greyhounds may not have any NHL experience, but that might be a good thing. He thinks the game much differently than his predecessors and is not afraid to try new ideas.

He is exactly the opposite of every other hire the team had previously made.

Already, fans are trying to connect the dots on what role Dubas has played since coming here. Did he sign Daniel Winnik? Was he behind the five-year commitment the Leafs made to Jake Gardiner? No one can be sure, but it seems that already the Leafs are doing things differently.

2. They made a long-term commitment to Jake Gardiner

He was buried in the minors and hung up in the window for sale. But now, it appears that the Leafs are committed to Jake Gardiner.

It is quite the turnaround for a 23-year-old, who at times clashed with Randy Carlyle and teased management with his potential. For those reasons, it was assumed that the Leafs would either trade or sign Gardiner to a low-risk, bridge contract. Instead, the team invested in the puck-moving defenceman with a five-year contract worth US$20.25-million that should look better and better as the years go on.

In the past, this was not a move the Leafs would have made. They have signed one-year deals with Cody Franson in each of the last three seasons and signed Nazem Kadri to a bridge contract. But the thinking changed on Gardiner.

Maybe it was Dubas’ influence. Or maybe Gardiner showed enough in the last 21 games, where he scored five of his team-leading 10 goals and contributed 14 points, that the Leafs believe he will become a top-pairing defenceman.

Either way, it ensured that one of their top young players is here to stay.

3. They created internal competition

If you want to kill a couple of hours and give yourself a migraine, try to predict what the opening lineup will be.

Okay, so Jonathan Bernier will be in net. And Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk will be the starting forward line. After that, you’re just guessing.

Chances are even Randy Carlyle does not know which players will be playing on what lines, or even who will make the team. It’s supposed to be that way. If there’s one message that has come out of July 1, it is that the Leafs want competition.

That is why they have seemingly added a player for every day since free agency opened. The result is too many bodies and not enough roster spots, which ultimately means an end to complacency. The competition level was lacking last season, in part because salary cap constraints meant the team could not keep reserve players.

That is no longer the case.

Will David Clarkson beat out Leo Komarov for playing time on the second line? Will Jake Gardiner or Stephane Robidas or Roman Polak join Dion Phaneuf on the top pairing? Will Matt Frattin or David Booth or Petri Kontiola be the third line winger? Where will minor-leaguers such as Peter Holland, Carter Ashton and Petter Granberg fit in? And does the signing of Daniel Winnik mean that Colton Orr has played his last game in the NHL?

4. They acquired the pieces to dress a legitimate fourth line

If there was one criticism with Randy Carlyle’s coaching last season, it was his refusal to roll four lines. Much of this is because Carlyle believed there was still a place in the NHL for Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren, who could not be trusted to play more than five minutes a night.

The result, of course, was that the top line played too much and ultimately got tired as the season wore on.

Carlyle should not have that problem this season. If anything, he has been provided a fourth line that could compete with the third line for playing time. But first, he will have to accept that the age of the enforcer is dead. That might be easier now that he has a potential fourth line (Daniel Winnik, Petri Kontiola, Matt Frattin, Troy Bodie, etc.) that could match up against any other team’s top two lines without Carlyle having to worry about getting burned defensively.

5. They chose skill over size at the draft

The last time the Leafs selected a European in either the first or second round of the NHL Entry Draft was in 2006, when Czech-born Jiri Tlusty was chosen 13th overall. Since then, the team has focused its efforts on North American players with a physical bent.

So it was somewhat surprising that the Leafs selected William Nylander with the eighth overall pick, especially since Nick Ritchie, Brendan Perlini and other Leaf-type players were still available. Nylander, who is 5-foot-9, is not Tyler Biggs or Frederik Gauthier. He won’t be expected to finish checks or get into fights or play a checking role. But he can skate, score and is a potential top-line forward that can change a game with his dynamic skill.

He is the last person the Leafs would have selected during the Brian Burke era.

The selection was not a one-off. The team chose Russian defenceman Rinat Valiev with their second pick and selected another Swedish forward with a high ceiling with their last pick. In other words, the next few years could be exciting.